The invention is directed to systems and methods for using an interactive media guidance application, and more particularly to using the interactive media guidance application to detect inconsistent user actions and provide feedback.
Conventional television equipment devices allow users to perform actions relative to programs provided through the television equipment that, for example, restrict access to the programs or remove access restrictions from the programs. The user may desire to restrict access to a particular program because, for example, the rating of the program exceeds a tolerance level of a user. The terms “restrict access” may be used interchangeably below with the term “lock” and the term “remove access restrictions” may be used interchangeably with the term “unlock”.
Although the user performs the restriction access action relative to the particular program, there may be other programs, potentially unknown to the user, that have similar undesirable characteristics (e.g., unsuitable content) that might also exceed the tolerance level of the user. The user may perform actions relative to these other programs that are inconsistent with the restriction access action performed relative to the particular program. For example, the user may remove access restrictions or not restrict access from/to programs that have the undesirable characteristics of a particular program. However, conventional television equipment devices do not determine that inconsistent actions are performed. Accordingly, the user is not informed about the existence of these other programs that may have undesirable characteristics (or about any inconsistent actions) and may therefore be exposed to unsuitable or undesirable content.
Additionally, a user may be dissatisfied or offended by a particular program's rating or subject matter. However, there is no easy way for the user to express his/her disagreement or disapproval with the rating, content or quality of the program to the media provider or program sponsor(s). Thus, the media provider will unknowingly continue to provide the inappropriate or offensive program and/or the reputation of the sponsor may be damaged because the sponsor may be potentially unknowingly associated with the inappropriate and/or offensive subject matter.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide enhanced systems and methods for detecting inconsistent user actions and providing feedback.